Happy New Year and Welcome Back !

As part of my on-going interaction with Boys Read! Boys Rule!, I am pleased to bring you my challenge video-- librarian with a light saber. (Schools blocking Google Video, including my own, will not show this clip.) I refuse to burp the alphabet, mainly because I tried and failed. Yes, that's Darth Vader, saying "The force is strong with this one." The boook with which I subdue him is Royce Buckingham's Goblins! An Underearth Adventure.

Far and away the best book I read over break is David Gilman's The Devil's Breath. It was absolutely spellbinding, AND is the first in a series-- The Danger Zone.

Max Gordon is a student at a prestigious and demanding quasi-military school when he suddenly becomes the target of an assassin! Why? His father is an international environmental adventurer and advocate who has angered some very powerful people. He's been kidnapped, and it's up to Max to find him. He travels to Namibia, where he must foil the evil Shaka Chang, who has evil intentions for controlling all of the water rights in the area, at the expense of hundreds of indigenous people.

Wow. The plot is demanding, the characters interesting and likeable, and the book a little longer than some action books for middle grade students, so it's perfect for 8th graders who have "read everything". I can't wait until I can get my hands on Ice Claw and Blood Sun! Like Will Hobbs, Gilman has done his research into all of the exotic locations, so reading The Devil's Breath was a great way to travel over break without leaving home! I may have to break with my policy and buy THREE copies of this for the library!